Tag: scale

Tesla is cutting its full-time staff headcount by approximately 7 percent, as it ramps up production of its Model 3 sedans, CEO Elon Musk said Friday. Tesla shares fell almost 8 percent in premarket trade following the news. In an email to employees, Musk notes that the company faces a “very difficult” road ahead in its long-term goal to sell affordable renewable energy products at scale, noting the company is younger than other players in the industry. “Tesla will need to make these cuts while

Tesla is cutting its full-time staff headcount by approximately 7 percent, as it ramps up production of its Model 3 sedans, CEO Elon Musk said Friday.

The announcement come on the back of various cost-cutting measures the company has made of late, as it looks to reduce the price of its products and boost margins.

Tesla shares fell almost 8 percent in premarket trade following the news.

In an email to employees, Musk notes that the company faces a “very difficult” road ahead in its long-term goal to sell affordable renewable energy products at scale, noting the company is younger than other players in the industry.

“Tesla will need to make these cuts while increasing the Model 3 production rate and making many manufacturing engineering improvements in the coming months,” Musk said in the company update.

“Attempting to build affordable clean energy products at scale necessarily requires extreme effort and relentless creativity, but succeeding in our mission is essential to ensure that the future is good, so we must do everything we can to advance the cause,” he added.

In a part of the world better known for towering skyscrapers and oil than for its startup scene, Gulf Arab entrepreneurs might be seeing bright times ahead. That’s according to Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman of Wanda Group, whose venture capital fund invests in tech companies all over the Middle East and North Africa. Now that oil prices are dramatically down from their October highs, the veteran Middle East investor says the market moves “will definitely be a blessing in disguise” and in tha

In a part of the world better known for towering skyscrapers and oil than for its startup scene, Gulf Arab entrepreneurs might be seeing bright times ahead. That’s according to Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman of Wanda Group, whose venture capital fund invests in tech companies all over the Middle East and North Africa.

“For years we’ve said there is an inverse relationship between how change happens on the regulatory environment and the price of oil — the lower the price of oil, the faster the change process happens,” Ghandour told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Thursday, pointing to Arab Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates whose economies have historically been dependent on hydrocarbon revenues.

Now that oil prices are dramatically down from their October highs, the veteran Middle East investor says the market moves “will definitely be a blessing in disguise” and in that it will force the development of sustainable, knowledge-based economies and jobs. He believes that startups founded five or more years ago are now reaching their maturity stage, meaning there will be more businesses scaling up in the next several years — if they can get the necessary support.

“These companies born somewhere around 2011, 2012, have raised much more money, they are growing much faster, the region is adopting mobile smartphone technology much faster, they are interacting much faster and at a much larger scale, specifically in Saudi Arabia,” Ghandour said.

“This is the time when there is size, there is scale, and the big funds globally who don’t want to take the risk early on, are going to be looking for entry into a market that they don’t have much presence in.” He pointed to New York-based global equity firm General Atlantic’s investment of $120 million in Dubai-based website Property Finder last November. The Middle East real estate platform was founded in 2007 and has been profitable since 2013.

Investments in Middle East and North Africa (MENA)-based startups went up by 31 percent between 2017 and 2018 to $893 million, with 366 deals made, according to Magnitt, a regional data platform for investors. The database also found that more than 155 institutions invested in MENA startups in 2018, 30 percent of which were from outside the region and 47 percent of which had not previously invested in the region.

Ground has been broken on the development of West Africa’s “first utility-scale wind power project”, located in Senegal. The 158.7 megawatt (MW) Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye, or PETN, is set to be completed in 2020, according to renewable energy firm Lekela. “Senegal has been quick to embrace the idea and the advantages of renewable energy,” Chris Antonopoulos, Lekela’s CEO, said in a statement towards the end of last week. The International Renewable Energy Agency has described Africa as being ric

Ground has been broken on the development of West Africa’s “first utility-scale wind power project”, located in Senegal.

The 158.7 megawatt (MW) Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye, or PETN, is set to be completed in 2020, according to renewable energy firm Lekela.

The 46-turbine facility will use turbines from Danish company Vestas and will generate more than 450,000 megawatt hours of energy annually, boosting Senegal’s generation capacity by approximately 15 percent, Lakela said. The project will be built near the community of Taiba N’Diaye.

“Senegal has been quick to embrace the idea and the advantages of renewable energy,” Chris Antonopoulos, Lekela’s CEO, said in a statement towards the end of last week.

The International Renewable Energy Agency has described Africa as being rich in renewable sources of energy such as the wind and sun.

Kenya, for example, is home to the Lake Turkana Wind Power project, which is made up of 365 wind turbines. The project has a total installed capacity of 310 MW and has been producing and sending electricity to Kenya’s national grid since September.

Facebook shares are getting crushed — Here’s what three experts say investors should know 19 Hours Ago | 05:08Facebook tanked again on Monday. The stock has now plummeted 13 percent in November amid fresh controversy over how it deals with misinformation and reports of turmoil in the C-suite. Here’s what three experts have to say:Victor Anthony of Aegis Capital is not worried about Facebook, a stock he has made his top large-cap pick for the next year. Jason Calacanis of Angel investor says this

The stock has now plummeted 13 percent in November amid fresh controversy over how it deals with misinformation and reports of turmoil in the C-suite. Facebook is now 39 percent from record highs reached in July.

Here’s what three experts have to say:

Victor Anthony of Aegis Capital is not worried about Facebook, a stock he has made his top large-cap pick for the next year. “What’s most important for investors of Facebook is whether or not these negative headlines are putting pressure on user growth, whether or not users are fleeing the platform, and whether or not advertisers are fleeing the platform,” said Anthony. “I’m not seeing people leaving the platforms en masse.”

Jason Calacanis of Angel investor says this unrelenting wave of criticism from all sides presents a real problem to Facebook, but that its scale should help it survive. “This is a true crisis for Facebook and I think this could be – it’s possible, maybe not probable but possible – this could be their AOL peak, their Yahoo peak,” said Calacanis. However, “Facebook is a whole different scale. It’s 2.5 billion people so I don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon.”

Joel Kulina of Wedbush says problems in the company have been evident longer than this month. “If you go back to that earnings report back in July, they missed across the board and what really jumps out at me is that we’re seeing declining daily and monthly active users in North America or stalling active user metrics in North America, declining in Europe and the only regions that are seeing growth is in Asia where the average revenue per user is much lower than the Western world,” Kulina said.

Bottom Line: Facebook will likely survive this storm, but the strength of its long-term growth trajectory is not a given and the company still needs to sort out its platform kinks.

Americans are confident they’ll be rich — but their finances say otherwise. A survey by personal finance site GoBankingRates asked people to rate their confidence, on a scale of 1 to 5, of someday being rich. A quarter called themselves “very confident,” but most also admitted they weren’t taking any steps toward reaching that goal. The steps people could take to become rich include paying off debt and increasing earnings. The top answer was “doing nothing.”

Americans are confident they’ll be rich — but their finances say otherwise.

A survey by personal finance site GoBankingRates asked people to rate their confidence, on a scale of 1 to 5, of someday being rich. A quarter called themselves “very confident,” but most also admitted they weren’t taking any steps toward reaching that goal.

The steps people could take to become rich include paying off debt and increasing earnings. The top answer was “doing nothing.”

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said that its upcoming mega-shopping event will be the largest-ever in terms of “scale and reach” as it looks to continue growing what has become a multibillion-dollar sales day. The event, which takes places on Nov. 11, is Alibaba’s day of massive sales across all of its platforms and has been compared to Black Friday in the United States. Widely known as “Singles Day,” the event is also known as the 11:11 shopping festival because of the date it takes place. It

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said that its upcoming mega-shopping event will be the largest-ever in terms of “scale and reach” as it looks to continue growing what has become a multibillion-dollar sales day.

The event, which takes places on Nov. 11, is Alibaba’s day of massive sales across all of its platforms and has been compared to Black Friday in the United States. Widely known as “Singles Day,” the event is also known as the 11:11 shopping festival because of the date it takes place.

It’s the 10th anniversary of the event, which was created by current Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang in 2009. Back then, Singles Day brought in $7.8 million in gross merchandise value. Total GMV generated in 2017 was $25.3 billion. In comparison, online sales for Black Friday in the U.S. racked up $5 billion last year, according to data from Adobe.

Alibaba did not offer any forecast for this year’s sales.

On Friday, Alibaba officially kicked off the festival with an event in Beijing, China, where Zhang outlined how the company’s so-called “new retail” strategy will help make this year’s event be the largest ever “in terms of scale and reach,” according to a press release.

Barclays bumped up its rating on Disney shares to overweight from equal weight on Friday, pointing to the company’s shift to provide an over-the-top media service as a new spark for growth. “We believe the company has the key mix of assets to be successful and the opportunity from this pivot could be substantial,” Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar said in a note. “We believe Disney’s Investor Day could prove to be a catalyst to frame the scale of the opportunity and help the company build a c

Barclays bumped up its rating on Disney shares to overweight from equal weight on Friday, pointing to the company’s shift to provide an over-the-top media service as a new spark for growth.

“We believe the company has the key mix of assets to be successful and the opportunity from this pivot could be substantial,” Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar said in a note. “We believe Disney’s Investor Day could prove to be a catalyst to frame the scale of the opportunity and help the company build a credible terminal value ‘story’ around the stock.”

Disney’s investor day is expected to be early next year and “should not only give investors a sense of the scale of Disney’s ambitions but also help remove a persistent speculation about the scale of earnings downside from new businesses,” Venkateshwar said.

Barclays raised its price target on shares of Disney to $130 a share from $105 a share. Disney stock rose 1.5 percent in premarket trading from Thursday’s close of $116.18 a share.

Prize money for winning tournaments is on the rise and major brands want sponsor teams or competitions to reach a millennial audience. Newzoo expects 53 percent of the esports audience to be in the Asia Pacific region in 2018 and 18 percent to be in Europe. Asia has a rich gaming history, being home to many well-known gaming companies such as Sony and Nintendo. If you were to watch an esports tournament online you’d see many of the aspects that appear on traditional sports broadcasts — commentar

It’s only in the past few years that professional gaming has become a viable career option. Prize money for winning tournaments is on the rise and major brands want sponsor teams or competitions to reach a millennial audience.

To give a sense of the scale of the industry, here’s some stats. The International 2018, the biggest tournament for the game “Dota 2,” was held in August and had a total prize pool of $25.5 million. The final had nearly 15 million people watching across various streaming sites, including Amazon-owned Twitch. If you took out the number of Chinese viewers that number would have fallen to 1.2 million, showing the scale of the market in the world’s second-largest economy.

In fact, esports is a truly international phenomenon. Newzoo expects 53 percent of the esports audience to be in the Asia Pacific region in 2018 and 18 percent to be in Europe. In comparison, North America will account for around 14 percent.

Asia has a rich gaming history, being home to many well-known gaming companies such as Sony and Nintendo. The growth in viewership has been driven by the higher quality broadcast being put on. If you were to watch an esports tournament online you’d see many of the aspects that appear on traditional sports broadcasts — commentary, analysis and stats.

“What we are seeing now over time, is we are seeing a professional element develop, we are seeing a strong critical mass of amateur competition develop, and we are continuing to see the gamers,” Garry Cook, executive chairman at U.K.-based Gfinity, told CNBC’s “Beyond the Valley.”

“So, therefore, the event is only the same as traditional sports — the very best, performing in an environment that allows us to watch. The Romans were doing that.”

Gfinity is a U.K.-based company that has an arena in London where it helps put on tournaments and create content.

Why Mario Gabelli thinks you should own CBS and Viacom 16 Hours Ago | 09:36Mario Gabelli, a major Viacom and CBS shareholder, told CNBC on Friday he would like those media giants to remain separate in the short term. CBS is a loaded laggard,” the billionaire value investor said on “Fast Money Halftime Report.” “Viacom is an even doubly loaded laggard,” added Gabelli, the second-largest holder of Viacom voting shares. CBS and Viacom had been under the same umbrella from 2000 to 2006 before they w

Mario Gabelli, a major Viacom and CBS shareholder, told CNBC on Friday he would like those media giants to remain separate in the short term.

“I’d like both of them to show their numbers. CBS is a loaded laggard,” the billionaire value investor said on “Fast Money Halftime Report.”

“Viacom is an even doubly loaded laggard,” added Gabelli, the second-largest holder of Viacom voting shares.

However, the Gamco founder refused to be pinned down on how he would vote if a deal were to be brought to the board. Gabelli’s investment firm has nearly $40.7 billion in assets under management.

National Amusements Inc., which controls the voting shares of Viacom and CBS, has twice tried, and failed, to bring the two media companies back together again to gain scale in a landscape of megadeals galore this year. CBS and Viacom had been under the same umbrella from 2000 to 2006 before they were split into separate publicly traded companies.

Les Moonves, a leading voice in opposition to a merger, was ousted as chairman and chief executive of CBS earlier this month, under a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations.

Joseph Ianniello, who had been chief operating officer at the network, took over as acting CEO, while the board started a search for a permanent successor.

Meanwhile, CBS and NAI, the holding company of Shari Redstone and her family, also agreed to drop their lawsuits against each other, with a stipulation that NAI and the Redstones won’t pursue a CBS-Viacom deal for at least two years.

Still, that does not prevent the companies from negotiating a deal independently.

Days after Moonves’ departure, Viacom CEO Bob Bakish told CNBC that shareholders should focus on his turnaround plans for the media company, not on deal speculation.

Some analysts say a merger with CBS could be more likely with Moonves gone.

“There’s no question that scale is valuable,” Bakish acknowledged at the time. But he added, “There are a lot of ways to get the benefits of scale. We’re getting them more and more inside the company.”

On Friday, Gabelli also said on CNBC, “We’re going to tell Shari Redstone: Be the same as the owner, Bob Kraft, of the [New England Patriots].” Using a football analogy, he said, “Stick with your QBs.”

“Ianniello is going to follow through on the strategic plan [at CBS]. And Bob Bakish is going to do a great job at Viacom,” Gabelli added. “I’m a cheerleader for Shari.”

Viacom CEO Bob Bakish said Wednesday on CNBC that he does think “scale is valuable,” but he repeatedly deflected questions about whether a CBS merger is anymore likely since Les Moonves was ousted at the network. In a “Squawk on the Street” interview, after an address to the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, Bakish said shareholders should focus on his plans to reinvigorate Viacom, not on deal speculation. On stage at the conference and in talking with David Faber on CNBC, Bakish touted wha

Viacom CEO Bob Bakish said Wednesday on CNBC that he does think “scale is valuable,” but he repeatedly deflected questions about whether a CBS merger is anymore likely since Les Moonves was ousted at the network.

In a “Squawk on the Street” interview, after an address to the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, Bakish said shareholders should focus on his plans to reinvigorate Viacom, not on deal speculation.

“There’s no question that scale is valuable,” he acknowledged. “[But] there are lot of ways to get the benefits of scale. We’re getting them more and more inside the company.”

On stage at the conference and in talking with David Faber on CNBC, Bakish touted what he described as the beginnings of a successful turnaround at the media giant.

Citing Viacom’s Paramount Pictures as an example, Bakish told CNBC that he sees the studio on a “clear trajectory” in the right direction under a new management team.

After the Moonves departure from CBS, some analysts suspect a merger of Viacom and CBS could be more likely. Moonves was a leading voice in opposition to such as deal.

National Amusements, which controls both CBS and Viacom, has twice tried, and failed, to bring the two media companies back together again to gain scale in a landscape of megadeals galore this year.

Some of those deals include Disney’s $71 billion offer to buy assets from Twenty-First Century Fox, which is approaching the finish line, and AT&T’s just-completed $85 billion purchase of Time Warner.

On Sunday, CBS announced Moonves will depart “effective immediately,” following numerous allegations of sexual misconduct that spanned much of his career.

CBS and NAI, the holding company of Shari Redstone and her family, agreed to drop their respective lawsuits against each other, with a stipulation that NAI and the Redstones won’t pursue a CBS-Viacom deal for at least two years.

Still, that does not prevent the companies from negotiating a deal independently.